A deadline by militants holding an Israeli soldier expired early today with no sign that Israel was considering giving in to the demand to release prisoners and no word from the captors. The Hamas-linked militants set a 6 a.m. deadline for Israel to begin freeing the prisoners, implying they would kill him if their demands were not met. Calls after the deadline expired to Hamas leaders and to Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Hamas military wing, were not answered. There was also no word on the condition of the soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected any negotiations with the militants, and the army pressed ahead with its Gaza offensive. Privately, though, some Israeli officials said the government had not ruled out any options to win Cpl. Shalit's freedom. Israel has pounded Gaza with air strikes and artillery shells for nearly a week in an unsuccessful effort to force the militants to release Cpl. Shalit. ... http://www.washingtontimes.com

Demolish Me." It's spray-painted on the side of a mobile home here, one of an endless stream of homes rotting amid the piles of debris baking in the hot sun. It's about 90 degrees today, and the flies are making use of the rubble. A friend told me cars are still perched in trees down here in St. Bernard Parish, so I came to see. Indeed, a car is in the trees not far from the town of Meraux, off East Judge Perez Highway, across an open field. Was it blown into the trees? Did it float there and come to a rest? There's nobody around who has the answer, nearly nine months after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to this land. In the Lower 9th Ward, progress is as slow as the politics. Houses sit on top of cars, water pipes spew water into the dirt and power lines dangle, tangled like spaghetti. Soon in the muddy puddles of filthy water, the nemesis of summer will be here in large numbers -- mosquitoes. And, as the locals say, "It ain't gonna be pretty." ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060704-121839-1265r.htm

U.S. stocks are threatened by predictions the Federal Reserve will raise its benchmark overnight lending rate as high as 6 percent. Barclays Capital Inc. forecast the Fed's target rate will reach 6 percent by the end of the year. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Credit Suisse Group made similar calls for next year. Last week, policy makers lifted the rate to 5.25 percent, the 17th straight increase. There have been eight time periods since the 1960s when the so-called federal funds rate was 6 percent or higher. The latest began in March 2000, the start of a three-year bear market for stocks. Prices dropped in three more periods and had losses during two others. ``Six percent would make us decide to pull back our equity allocation,'' now about 50 percent, said Peter Wall, who helps oversee about $80 billion as chief investment strategist at JPMorgan Private Client Services in New York. The rate ``would increase the risk of recession in 2007.'' ...http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aN66GVcj25Dw&refer=us

Conservative candidate Felipe Calderon has won Mexico's presidential election, according to preliminary results. Electoral authorities give Mr Calderon the narrowest of margins of just over 1% ahead of his leftist rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. But Mr Obrador said there had been inconsistencies in the voting returns and that he would challenge a victory by Mr Calderon. The results will not be verified until a final count later this week. "I won the election... it is irreversible," Mr Calderon of the National Action Party (Pan) told Mexican television. But Mr Lopez Obrador, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) said he would not accept "what we all know is a preliminary result," the AFP news agency reported. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5143810.stm

The ousted dictator of Chad, accused of killing thousands, is living in exile with his family in a seaside Senagalese villa. But one very persistent American has made it his mission to get former president Hissene Habre into a courtroom. This week, rights activist Reed Brody brought his seven-year crusade to the African Union summit in Gambia, where he won a partial victory. Senegal agreed to try Habre, but only under a yet-to-be defined mandate from the African Union. Reed called it a success, though he noted that his fight now just moves back to Senegal, which has to pass a law to allow the trial. ``We want to prove that if the law is on your side, it can happen. You have to create the political climate to make it happen,'' the Human Rights Watch lawyer told The Associated Press. ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5926748,00.html

Clashes between Indian government forces and suspected Islamic separatist militants killed 13 people in India's Jammu-Kashmir state, officials said Monday. Nine militants and a soldier died in three incidents in the Kashmir area, the army said, while police said they had killed three militants, including a senior leader, in two other encounters in the Jammu portion of the state. More than a dozen rebel groups have been fighting since 1989 for Muslim-majority Kashmir's independence from predominantly Hindu India or its merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan. The conflict has killed more than 67,000 people. Kashmir is a Himalayan territory claimed by both India and Pakistan and divided between them. Although Jammu territory is not under dispute, India's Jammu-Kashmir state is commonly referred to simply as Kashmir. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2149560